Mamata Banerjee's 'war cry' to 'topple the UPA regime' via a Trinamool Congress' no-confidence motion is fast turning out to be a no-confidence show by various Opposition parties against Didi's bid to be their 'rallying force' .

While the BJP, if it wants, can easily help Didi get 50 signatures of Lok Sabha MPs to move a notrust motion, such a tango will further advertise 'the Delhi divide' of the Opposition.

A day after Murli Manohar Joshi claimed Mamata had phoned Sushma Swaraj for support, the BJP brass says there was no such call from Didi, making many wonder what prompted Joshi too to pull a fast one. JD (U)'s Sharad Yadav met Prakash Karat on Sunday and realised Marxists will not play 'no-trust ball' either with BJP led NDA or Mamata.

The Congress and the CPI-M, of course, will be delighted if the BJP and Didi join hands so that the two can tell the over 25% Muslim population of West Bengal to watch and understand how Didi and the saffron party are cooking a dish with an eye on post-2014 tango. How do the soccer-loving Bengalis like watching their Didi scoring a self-goal, again, in Delhi's political central court?

Marc Antony

A K Antony is often called the St Antony of Congress. But his friends always knew AK could play perfect Marc Antony too.

So, last week when Antony told the Kerala audience in the presence of the CM Oommen Chandy and his industry minister P K Kunhalikutty that he (Antony) lost confidence since the Chandy regime took over to try and bring new industry to Kerala and reminisced on how his such efforts had received good support from the previous Left Front CM, it hit the Congress CM like a bolt from the blue.

Though efforts were made to say Antony was only upset about the trade union activities at a defence ministry project in Kerala, nobody missed the point that when Antony quit last time as CM, both Chandy and Kunhalikutty had played a critical role in weakening his hold on the Congress-led UDF. Incidentally , Antony's loaded remarks coincide with state Congress factions closing in on Chandy.

Antony also let his remarks trigger waves before he came out with a clarification. By then, the whole of Kerala had watched Chandy licking his wounds. Â

Words & Deeds

While the absence of senior Congress and Left leaders at Bal Thackeray's funeral was understandable, there was also conspicuous no-show by the Janata Dal (U) leaders despite both Sena and JD(U) being the founding members of the BJPled NDA. It seems the Sena's political bashing of people from UP and Bihar has made the Bihar-based JD(U) leaders nervous about attending the Mumbai event.

Yet, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav issued a statement in Delhi to pay tributes to the Sena chief. Among other things, Yadav described Thackeray, a "great warrior" , "personal friend" , a great patriot , philanthropist and a true nationalist, who believed in straight speaking" . After all that verbal bravado, why has the warrior in Yadav lost the nerve to turn up at Mumbai? Chinese Lessons

This week, a delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will visit New Delhi to brief its five fraternal parties in India - CPI-M , CPI, Forward Bloc, the Congress and BJP - about the recent changes in the CPC's leadership and about other important decisions taken at the Beijing party congress.

The visiting delegation may also brief their Indian friends about the new Chinese leadership's views on India-China ties as well as on China's economic progress. On economic reform, the Indian Communists and the BJP can jointly describe their own efforts to fight back the "post-Mao revisionism" playing out in the UPA's economic policy. Hopefully, the Chinese would not snap their fraternal ties.

Role Reversal

Congressmen chortle over the effect Kamal Nath's appointment as parliamentary affairs minister has had on his junior minister Rajiv Shukla. Shukla had gathered, during Nath's predecessor, mild-mannered P K Bansal's time, a reputation as "the strategic link between the UPA and NDA" !

Given Nath's profile and style, it is understandable when the PM met some Opposition leaders over lunch before the winter session, the credit for organising the meetings was, rightly, attributed only to the parliamentary affairs minister. Nobody missed the message.